3 OCTOBER 1908, Page 7

THREE ROMAN CATHOLIC WORKS.

In the " St. Nicholas Series," Edited by Dons Bede Camm, O.S.B. (Macdonald and Evans), we have The Story of Blessed Thomas More, by a "Nun of Tyburn Convent "; Father Mathew, by Katharine Tynan ; and Barnaby Bright, 2 vols., by the Rev. David Boerne, S.J. The last we may dismiss, as it is a tale, and the noticing of it does not belong to these columns. In the volume about Sir Thomas More the qualities which make him a venerable name in any record of Englishmen are duly dwelt upon ; the doubtful matters are passed over. " Utopia" is mentioned; we are not favoured with any attempt to reconcile it with the writer's actions and pronouncements in later life. It would have been interesting to know what the " Nun" thinks of More's "short way of dealing with heretics." It is scarcely fair to say that the army which in 1527 stormed Rome under the command of the Constable Bourbon was a " Lutheran army." " The Sack of Rome by the Spanish and German Imperialists" is the description given by an impartial history. Thero were not many Lutherans in Spain. "Katharine Tynan's " Father Mathew is a picturesque little book which may be read with much pleasure. Here, happily, we can all agree, even though we may not think with the author that total abstinence is an "impossible doctrine,"—we are not quite sure, however, whether this is not a dramatic utterance. It is quite true that Theobald Mathew saw much of his work "crumble to pieces beforo his eyes " ; but the substance of it remains. These two volumes appear with the nail obstat of the Censor, who, we see, is the editor. This may look a little odd, but who should know more about them ?